this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2023
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The Agora

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In the spirit of the Ancient Greek Agora, we invite you to join our vibrant community - a contemporary meeting place for the exchange of ideas, inspired by the practices of old. Just as the Agora served as the heart of public life in Ancient Athens, our platform is designed to be the epicenter of meaningful discussion and thought-provoking dialogue.

Here, you are encouraged to speak your mind, share your insights, and engage in stimulating discussions. This is your opportunity to shape and influence our collective journey, just like the free citizens of Athens who gathered at the Agora to make significant decisions that impacted their society.

You're not alone in your quest for knowledge and understanding. In this community, you'll find support from like-minded individuals who, like you, are eager to explore new perspectives, challenge their preconceptions, and grow intellectually.

Remember, every voice matters and your contribution can make a difference. We believe that through open dialogue, mutual respect, and a shared commitment to discovery, we can foster a community that embodies the democratic spirit of the Agora in our modern world.

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Everyone I have something very important to say about The Agora.

The Problem

Let me be super clear here to something people don't seem to understand about lemmy and the fediverse. Votes mean absolutely nothing. No less than nothing.

In the fediverse, anyone can open a instance, create as many users as they want and one person can easily vote 10,000 times. I'm serious. This is not hard to do.

Voting at best is a guide to what is entertaining.

As soon as you allow a incentive the vast majority of votes will be fake. They might already be mostly fake.

If you try to make any decision using votes as a guide someone WILL manipulate votes to control YOU.

one solution (think of others too!)

A counsel of trusted users.

The admin, top mods may set up a group to decide on who to ban and what instances to defederate from. You will not get it right 100% of the time but you also won't be controlled by one guy in his basement, running 4 instances and 1,000 alts.

Now i'm gonna go back to shit posting.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We have a "counsel of trusted users", it's the mod team who are committed to making our little democracy thrive. We don't want to be in control, we want to facilitate the community in choosing its own direction.

The simplicity of our process works in our favor. If somebody spun up 1000 alts to mess with a vote, we would notice. All of the discussions and votes happen publicly, so anyone can audit the profiles involved if things seem weird. I'll play whack-a-mole with bots every day if I need to, and that can also be audited on the publicly-visible modlog.

No system is perfect. This is the system we decided to try, despite the challenges that could arise from it.

[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Nooooo votes bad dictatorship good